This document summarizes the slides from a PhD workshop on trends in travel agencies' e-business from a human resources perspective. The research aims to identify new occupations that have emerged for travel agencies to function in a modern technological environment. It will analyze all jobs at agencies, including occasional freelance workers, and classify occupations by importance. The methodology involves studying at least 20 agencies to compile a list of all identified jobs. The anticipated results are that agencies will increasingly hire different types of staff not traditionally related to tourism, such as bloggers and social media marketers, and that the research findings can help various groups related to employment, education, and career guidance.

1. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 1
Trends in travel agencies’
e-business: perspectives of
human resource sector
MSc Ivana Mišković
Faculty of sport and tourism, Novi Sad, Serbia
ivana.miskovic021@gmail.com
http://www.tims.edu.rs/

2. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 2
Adapting to modern e-business models for the agencies means
adopting technological innovations and implementing core
changes into their businesses.
New skills and competencies that modern tourist workers
must have, profile them towards new occupations that were
non-existent only a few years ago.

3. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 3
In practice, there is an increasing need for outsourcing of
individuals, who have certain kinds of knowledge, skills and
qualifications (primarily from IT).
This leads to an imbalance in terms of the contribution of the
permanently employed and the periodically hired workers.

4. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 4
The basic aim of this research is to uncover those new
occupations, i.e. work positions that are necessary for the
tourist agencies to function in a modern technological
environment.
Also, research encompasses knowledge, business skills and
work tasks mandatory for every occupation.

5. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 5
Problem definition
As the work is becoming increasingly more mobile and elastic, new
modalities of employment appeared.
In the current classification used by the Serbian Statistical Office there
are outdated occupations, which have not existed in practice in years.
Occupations linked with the process of creation, innovation and
placement of tourist services are not yet listed, nor are those referring
to IT support.
New trends in the form of employment and the newly created job
positions in the tourist sector should be researched in more detail,
which is why it was postulated as the basic problem of this research.

6. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 6
Conceptual development
The dissertation is focused on providing a detailed analysis of
transformation process of business of travel agencies in Serbia.
Special focus is placed on HR in terms of analysing newer, more
modern occupations that are becoming necessary for work in a
contemporary technological environment.

7. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 7
 All working positions in agencies should be analysed.
 All human resources occasionally hired should be listed.
 A short description of obligations, responsibilities and basic
working operations should be given.
 The frequency of hiring freelancers and their contribution to the
business as a whole will be analysed.
 A table containing all occupations classified according to the
degree of importance to the business, will be created.
 The expected result is to determine which occupations would be
useful to provide full-time employment.

8. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 8
Methodology
 minimum of 20 travel agencies
of various profiles
A list of all identified occupations
which appear in the sector of
agency business

9. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 9
Anticipated results
In the near future, agencies will hire a different type of staff
including those that have not been directly related with
tourism until now.
BloggersSocial
media
marketers

10. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 10
It is expected that research results will be of use in few areas:
state institutions that deal with the matter of employment,
 establishments of higher education,
organisers of various programmes and courses,
career management,
professional orientation,
managers of tourist companies that deal with HR,
young people who are yet to choose an occupation and who
have to make important decisions related to career planning.

11. ENTER 2016 PhD Workshop Slide Number 11
Thank you!